Born in St. Louis, Missouri, John McCausland (1837-1927) graduated with honors from Virginia Military Institute in 1857, then taught there until 1861. After organizing troops in what became West Virginia, McCausland fought in campaigns in southwestern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. To escape arrest for burning Chambersburg to the ground in 1864, he fled the county until 1867. For the remainder of his life McCausland attempted to stay out of the public's eye. He did, however, write his own account of the Chambersburg raid for the Philadelphia Times, a paper then owned by former Chambersburg businessman Alexander McClure.